Columns: Creation vs. evolution - who is right?

Editor's note - David McNabb and Nigel Reynolds have agreed to today's point-counterpoint essays in an effort to put to rest the debate between them.

By DAVID McNABB, Special to the Courier

British theologian, G.K. Chesterton said, "When you stop believing in God, you don't believe in nothing, you believe in ANYTHING." And the theory of evolution is the modern day "anything" that people desperately grasp to because they don't want to believe there is a God who they are responsible to, because humans want to be their own god, and not be accountable to anyone.

There is another group of people that we often call "mainline protestant denominations," along with the current pope, who have embraced evolution theory and old ages teaching because they think that "science" has proven this, and they twist the Bible into saying what it clearly does not, so they can continue to say that they are Christian.

The reason they think this is necessary is because they were taught in government schools that they attended (90 percent of Christians attend these), that evolution and old ages were a fact of science, and never once mentioning to the students that there are thousands of problems with these two theories. When we teach only one side of an issue, and present it as a fact, then you do not have education, but rather you have indoctrination at best and brain washing at worst. Parents of public school kids should protest to their school boards about the brainwashing that they are sanctioning in their schools.

The credibility of the Bible and of Jesus is at stake. Almost every other book in the Bible refers to Genesis, always as factual historical narrative, and Jesus refers to it 25 times, always as fact, never as metaphor. When you do a literary analysis of the creation and flood passages, you see that the author intended it to be taken literally.

The hold is so tight, that they will not allow the other side to have a voice at all. The movie, "Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed" and many websites, record the persecution and firing of high school teachers and college professors who admit to being creationists or being a proponent of intelligent design, so most who believe it, won't admit it in public.

A Washington Times poll published on Aug. 31, 1998, said that only 55 percent of American scientists believe in evolution, and 45 percent DO NOT. This poll did not disclose their identity, so they were able to be honest in answering this question.

The reason so many scientists don't believe in evolution is that they know that to do so you have to deny the four most accepted laws of science: 1.) law of biogenesis (says life only comes from life); 2.) the law of cause and effect (says every effect had a cause); 3.) the first law of Thermodynamics (says matter cannot be created or destroyed); and 4.) the second law of Thermodynamics (says everything is losing useable energy).

They also see that the simplest cell is far too complex to have come about by chance, and that all living systems are irreducibly complex, so that for it to work, you would have to have all the parts working at the same time. You would also have to ignore the common sense logic that design implies a designer. For these reasons, and the thousands of specific scientific reasons that prove evolution did not happen and that the universe is less than 10,000 years old, is why 45 percent of scientists and 61 percent of Americans break the brainwashing they received in the "education" system to believe in Biblical creation or are part of the intelligent design movement.

I do not have space here to list the thousands of scientific reasons why evolution could not have happened and that support a young universe and earth, but there are hundreds and maybe thousands of creation websites that you can find online.

Some of the larger organizations are: Creation Research Society; Answers in Genesis; Institute for Creation Research; Creation Ministries, Int.; and Creation Today. The local creation science organization for Arizona is the Az. Origin Science Association, which puts on free creation science seminars in seven locations. One of those locations is Prescott, which are quarterly and hosted by various churches. The next seminar is on April 18. You can get on the email notification list by calling David McNabb at 928-771-1218 or by sending an email to mcnabbprescott@aol.com.

David McNabb has a BA in Biblical studies from Pepperdine University, two years study in the ministerial program at Fuller Seminary and was a youth minister before becoming a high school teacher for 28 years. He now works for Creation, Evolution & Science Ministries and the Creation Science Hall of Fame, and is a VP in the Az. Origin Science Association.